The 10-year long residence route to settlement (the April 2024 rules)
If you have lived in the UK lawfully for ten continuous years, you may be able to settle through the long residence route, whatever visa categories those years were spent in, as long as your residence was lawful throughout. The heart of the route, and where applications most often fall down, is the word "continuous". Spend too long outside the UK and the ten-year clock can break and start again. That test changed on 11 April 2024, so the rule that applies to you now depends on when your absences happened.
The rule now: 180 days in any 12 months
For the long residence route, from 11 April 2024 the continuous-residence requirement is that you must not have been outside the UK for more than 180 days in any rolling 12-month period across your qualifying years. This is a rolling window, not an annual reset: any 12 consecutive months that contain more than 180 days of absence breaks continuity, and a break can reset the ten-year clock. It brings long residence into line with the absence rule the five-year settlement routes already use.
The old rule, which still counts for earlier absences
Before 11 April 2024 the test was different: no single absence of more than 184 days, and no more than 548 days of absence in total across the whole ten years. Those thresholds have not vanished. They still apply to any absence that began before 11 April 2024. So anyone part-way through a ten-year period right now is on a hybrid footing, earlier absences judged on the old total-and-single-trip limits, later ones on the new rolling 180-in-12 rule. You have to satisfy both across the relevant parts of the period.
Why the change bites
The new rolling rule is not simply stricter or looser, it is a different shape. It removes the overall 548-day ceiling, which helps people with many short trips, but it is unforgiving of a single heavy year: one 12-month window with 181 days out is a break, even if your ten-year total is modest. That is the trap, because people think in tax-year or calendar-year blocks, while the rule slides across every possible 12-month window.
Not to be confused with keeping ILR
This route is about qualifying for settlement, reaching ILR. It is a different question from keeping ILR once you hold it, which turns on a single two-year absence, and different again from tax residence. Same traveller, three separate clocks, each with its own limit.
The practical point
On the long residence route the dangerous thing is a rolling window you cannot see by glancing at a calendar. SplitYear tracks your absences against the 180-in-12 rolling rule (and the old total-and-single-trip limits for earlier absences), and warns you before a 12-month window crosses the line, with the limit shown against the rule it comes from.
SplitYear gives general information about the rules, cited to source. It is not immigration advice and does not replace a professional adviser. Rules as at Appendix Long Residence and Appendix Continuous Residence of the Immigration Rules, and the Home Office continuous residence guidance.